Rangers need penalties to see off Maritimo

Glasgow Rangers' Mitchell van der Gaag (L) fights for the ball with Maritimo Funchal's Nacho Novo in Glasgow during their UEFA Cup first round second leg football match.

Rangers clinched a place in the lucrative group stages of the UEFA Cup with penalties deciding their first round match against CS Maritimo.

Dado Prso's goal with 20 minutes remaining levelled the tie and took the game into extra-time and eventually penalties for Frenchman Gregory Vignal to score the vital spotkick to put Alex McLeish's side through.

Rangers went into the tie trailing Maritimo 1-0 from Gustavo Manduca's first leg goal and in the first minute they could have gone two behind to the same player.

A long ball from defence went over the head of a static Paolo Vanoli and allowed the Portuguese striker to scamper through on goal but his shot was well blocked by Rangers captain and goalkeeper Stefan Klos.

Ex Monaco star Prso should then have drew the Ibrox side level in the tie when Bob Malcolm's sliding pass put him one on one with Maritimo keeper Marcos Oliveira.

Instead of testing the Brazilian with a first time shot, however, the Croatian tried to switch the ball to his stronger right-foot and the delay allowed the Maritimo defence to get back to block his shot.

Nacho Novo was then unlucky on 18 minutes when his header from Maurice Ross's cross from the right-wing clipped the top of the bar.

The game was perfectly matched with chances falling at each end and on 24 minutes a clever back heel from Brazilian Leonardo Lima put Miguel Pereira through on goal but his effort was saved at the second attempt by Klos.

At the other end a Chris Burke cross on 27 minutes was cleverly headed on by Prso with Novo racing in at the back post, but his headed effort was tipped over by Oliveira.

A minute later the Maritimo keeper was called on again to keep his side ahead. Rickson's free-kick from the left touchline was headed towards the top right-hand corner by Prso but somehow Oliveira clawed the ball out from under the bar with an acrobatic save.

The game was flowing from end to end and on the half hour mark clever play by Lima created a chance for his fellow countryman Alan, but his effort from the edge of the box was straight at Klos.

Rangers took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second-half and on 47 minutes Novo was again denied by the Maritimo keeper when Burke's corner found him unmarked six-yards from goal. The little Spaniard's header looked goal-bound until Oliveira threw himself to his left to make a great save.

The Ibrox side were now well on top but they looked to be running out of ideas until Prso finally found his shooting boots after 70 minutes.

Vignal, who had replaced Vanoli five minutes earlier, fired in a cross from the left and the Croatian striker managed to get in front of his marker to knock the ball clear. He steadied himself before rifling a shot past Oliveira to give Rangers the lead on the night and make it 1-1 on aggregate to take the game into extra-time.

Though there had been plenty of chances during the regulation 90 minutes, there were few real opportunities for either side in extra-time and the game headed into penalty kicks.

Novo, Prso, Thompson and Vignal scored for Rangers with only Arveladze missing. Maritimo meanwhile only managed to score two from the spot through Manual Fernandes and Lima with misses from Carlos Narciso and Antoniliton Arruda handing the victory to McLeish's side.